Thursday, March 12, 2015

'The Visit': Review

Alien invasions are a staple of Hollywood blockbusters,
reliably providing audiences with CGI spectacles of planetary destruction and
mass chaos. But how would Earth’s leaders respond to an actual
extra-terrestrial arrival? That’s the juicy question explored in agreeably
geeky and philosophical terms in The Visit, a documentary which,
cannily, isn’t so much about space invaders as it is about the people currently
inhabiting this world. An exploration of what human behavior would look like to
beings from another universe, The Visit feels like a report card on civilization
in which the final grades aren’t that promising.

The Visit exudes a playful yet serious tone, asking us to
consider civilization’s pros and cons

Premiering
at Sundance and screening as part of True/False and South By Southwest, this
new film from director Michael Madsen (not to be confused with the actor of the
same name) should be able to find theatrical distribution thanks to its
big-screen imagery and delectable hook. Weirdly though, because most of the
documentary’s scholars and scientists are based in Europe, The Visit may
face some resistance from US audiences, who have gotten very used to movie
aliens landing in their home country. But the documentary’s mixture of
speculation and wonder ought to make it a comfy fit for art houses, especially
appealing to sci-fi fans who enjoy pondering the big questions of existence
that often underpin the genre’s best stories.

At
the outset, The Visit explains that what we’re about to see is
an incident that hasn’t happened yet. The film introduces a scenario in which
aliens have just arrived on Earth, their intentions a mystery. Through a series
of interviews with everyone from theologians to engineers to a former UK
government spokesperson, The Visit wonders what a likely
procedure would be for making first contact with the arriving aliens.

Initially,
the documentary focuses on practical concerns: What would authorities say to
the public to avert widespread panic? (And, would telling people not to panic
only incite more alarm?) Who would represent humanity and talk to the alien
leaders? Soon, the film’s subjects begin shedding some light on these matters,
indicating that there are, in fact, some protocols in place for such a
situation. (For instance, the United Nations features an Office for Outer Space
Affairs.)

But
if the documentary’s early stretches make The Visitplay like a
real-life take on Independence Day, Madsen (Into Eternity)
slowly reveals his deeper motive. Speaking with experts in biology and other
sciences, the filmmaker directs many of his subjects to address the camera
directly, as if they’re speaking straight to the aliens. And what emerges from
these one-sided conversations are fundamental questions about humanity’s
legacy: what we have achieved, where we have failed, why we’re consumed with
preserving our experiences through art, and what our place is in the universe.
As a consequence, the interviews start to feel like an explanation (sometimes
an apology) for the human race, the subjects trying to boil down the essence of
our centuries of existence into a few minutes.

This
technique is even more provocative considering that, since the audience sees
these interviews from the alien’s viewpoint, we can, in a sense, stand apart
from humanity, judging our species’ behavior from a somewhat objective
perspective. Mostly avoiding touchy-feely proclamations about humanity’s basic
decency, The Visit exudes a playful yet serious tone, asking
us to consider civilization’s pros and cons. (For example: Would it be wise to
tell the aliens about our propensity for war? Or would lying make it worse?)
Interestingly, Madsen’s subjects largely assume that they must be cautious with
their “alien” interviewer, as if fearful they might anger the presumably more
advanced species that has come to our planet. Repeatedly, The Visit has
the air of an unannounced reckoning — humanity’s judgment day, you might say.
(One speaker, perhaps conscious of this, mentions that he hopes the aliens are
more merciful to us than invading human armies have been to the inhabitants of
conquered lands.)

Madsen
intercuts his interviews with slow-motion shots of nature and cityscapes that
have an almost dreamlike calm. (We never seen any aliens, but the humans on
screen in these intercuts are often frozen in place, suggesting the
disorientation that would occur after we realise that we’re not alone in the
universe.) The Visit is a thought experiment which is light on
its feet, happily in awe of the mysteries of the cosmos. But in its modest way,
the film also provokes us to reconsider our priorities on this planet, even if
aliens never decide to drop by.